The 45 -year-old entrepreneur packed his suitcases and set off for one of our own countries most staggeringly beautiful corners: a sleepy, high-altitude perimeter outpost called Tashkurgan that – at almost 5,000 km( 3,100 miles) from Beijing – is the most westerly village in China.

I realise a great opportunity to turn this little town into a mid-sized metropoli, Zhou explained during a tour of Europa Manor, a garish roadside spa he lately opened for Chinese sightseers along the Karakoram, the legendary 1,300 km road that snakes through Chinas rugged western mountains towards the 4,700 m-high Khunjerab Pass.

Zhou said he was part of a wave of entrepreneurs now pouring into this isolated frontier near Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, hoping to cash in on President Xis Belt and Road initiative, a multi-billion dollar infrastructure campaign that appears set to transform big swaths of Asia and the world beyond.

This place is going to see big changes, predicted Zhou, who hails from the central city of Xian, as he guided his visitors through an R& R centre fitted with plunge ponds, wicker chaise sofas and fake plastic trees.

Officials in Beijing and Islamabad claim the corridor a vast web of planned infrastructure projects running diagonally from the resource-rich region of Xinjiang in west China to the deep-water port of Gwadar on Pakistans Arabian coast will trigger an economic revolution in countries of the south Asian country.

The jaw-dropping landscape of glaciers and grasslands around Tashkurgan, an ancient Silk Road trading hub that is home to Chinas Tajik ethnic minority, has changed little in hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It is worth a expedition from England merely to see this place, the British adventurer Robert Shaw marvelled after trekking through the regions stupendous peaks in the late 1860 s.

Construction squads on both sides of the border have been rebuilding some of the most treacherous stretches of the Karakoram, the worlds highest transnational road and a project that took two decades and more than 1,000 lives to build.

Further ahead, there are spectacular plans to build the so-called Khunjerab railway, a high-altitude line that would operate roughly alongside the Karakoram and connect north-eastern Pakistan with the Chinese metropoli of Kashgar.

Such proposals are music to the ears of fortune-seekers such as Zhou who have flocked to this landlocked township to open improbably named firms such as the Sea Front International Hotel.

So many economic and geo-political goals lay behind the program that it eluded one simple definition but essentially “its been” Xis answer to Donald Trumps # MAGA: Lets Make China Great Again.

It is part of a push to cement Chinas position as the undisputed power of Asia, he said.

Chinas greatest strengths are financial it has immense economic muscle and building infrastructure. So it is putting those things together and using its economic diplomacy to build roads, railways, ports, powerlines[ that will help] integrate Asia[ and] puts China at the centre of Asia.

It is very significant because China is the only country that has the capacity to build infrastructure like this and the only country that is willing to do it, Miller added.

You can be very sceptical about what the Belt and Road itself signifies but nobody doubts that China is lending a lot of money and house a lot of stuff.

The winds of change have already been blowing in Tashkurgan and affecting its 40,000 -strong population.

Physically and culturally, the cities, which is the main home of the Sarikoli-speaking Tajik minority, is about as far from Beijing as you can get, without traversing Chinas 22,000 km border.

An exhibit at the local government museum, the Tajik Folk Culture Exhibition Hall, describes its natives as having typical the specific characteristics of Caucasian race, with light skin coloration, golden yellow or dark brown mane, dark blue or gray brown eyes, thin lip, high nose , not high cheekbone, developed torso mane and beard.

Slowly, nonetheless, the make-up of specific populations is changing. Locals say the last decade has realized a major influx of Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Chinas ethnic Han majority after the government began trying to boost the local economy by becoming the picturesque perimeter township into a tourist destination.

Those efforts intensified following an outbreak of deadly ethnic rioting in Xinjiangs capital, Urumqi, in 2009 as authorities began pushing for a outburst of leapfrog economic development that might calm the provinces violence-hit south.

Miller said one of the Belt and Road initiatives key aims was to bring development and stability to Chinas deprived periphery by connecting such regions with overseas markets.

Particularly in Xinjiang, China believes that economic development can help solve some of the security questions with its own militant Muslim minority and Islamist difficulties over the borders. They think that if you give people jobs and economic hope then perhaps they will be less inclined to foment rebellions and other things, he said.

I think they are mistaken there but that is how they believe, Miller added.

Rahber Khan, the owner of a Pakistani restaurant near the towns main square, said he feared most Chinese investment was destined for the strategic port of Gwadar , not the impoverished region where his family lived.

Maybe in the future we are growing but right now we dont see anything good in front of us, told Khan, 39, who is originally from Ghulkin, village representatives simply over the border.

Im not sure if its arriving or not, he told of plans to connect Pakistan and China with the Khunjerab railway, adding: Its just talking.

Before this weekends peak in Beijing, China has trumpeted its commitment to the game-changing initiative in a barrage of state-sponsored propaganda.

At a period when certain western powers are receding into protectionism and separation, China has been promoting the globalisation of the economy in a feeling of openness and inclusiveness, the official news agency Xinhua declared.

The English-language China Daily newspaper described the drive as one of the biggest public goods China offers the world.

Outside Khans restaurant, the Communist party has also set out its stall, stamping its message onto a giant cherry-red billboard that towers over Tashkurgans main square.

Build a beautiful Xinjiang! the sign reads. Make a Chinese nightmare come true!